Christa's first Racer

By Mike Kojima

What does a 9 year old girl want, a pony? An all-you-can-carry gift certificate from Hello Kitty?  No, apparently she likes carbon fiber.  OOOH! Carbon fiber!  My daughter Christa squealed when she saw the Noonan Racing foot box that I got so she could reach the pedals on her Top Kart, racing go kart.

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Time Attack Terror: FXMD's Record Setting Acura NSX (Video Inside!)

By Mike Kojima and Billy Johnson

If you follow Time Attack at all you are probably very familiar with FXMD's Acura NSX Unlimited RWD killing machine piloted by our own Fast Lap Editor, Billy Johnson.  In the 2009 Time Attack season the NSX has given the competition the business in every event it has entered for an undefeated 2009 Redline Time Attack season. Lets take a deep technically based look inside the fastest Time Attack machine in North America.

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Robispec’s Street Class Time Attack Nissan 370Z, Simple is Better?

By Mike Kojima, photos by Jeff Naeyaert

Robispec is a Southern California tuning shop who’s specially is a rather unusual one. Instead of the typical shop in search of speed via the quest for more and more power, Robispec’s game is increasing lateral G’s, of the cornering kind. The proprietor of Robispec is Robert Fuller or Robi, one of our favorite people. Robi is always willing to lend a hand or give advice to whatever project we have asked him, either formally as our Project EVO IX or by helping us swing wrenches at the track. Robi is on our short list of people we call for help if we have a problem that needs solving.

About six weeks ago we got a call from Robi telling us he would have something special, a Nissan 370Z he was building for the SEMA show and the annual Source Interlink Super Lap Battle. As there has been a lack of serious Nissan 370Z parts development due probably to its sluggish sales, we eagerly awaited checking out what Robi could cook up in short order.

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Dai Yoshihara’s Two Week Wonder, GT Channel’s Time Attack Nissan 350Z

By Mike Kojima

Pro Drifter and Formula D ace Dai Yoshihara is used to working on tight deadlines. Perhaps you have read our story on his 8 day wonder S13 that we covered in detail. To tell this story, and appreciate it, you have to rewind to a week before the 2009 SEMA show. Dai got the request from his long time supporters, The GT Channel to build one of their show cars into a time attack car for Source Interlink's 2009 Super Lap Battle Finals. The folks at the GT channel had a Nissan 350Z roadster that had been originally built as a SEMA show car two years ago, it had been gathering dust and the GT Channel wanted to do something with it. Dai was contacted and a deal was struck to give him the car to build into a time attack car.

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A Look Inside Dai Yoshihara’s Team Falken Pro Drift Machine

By Mike Kojima

A comment from one of my road racing friends prompted me to write this article. He said as a snide remark "I heard you are now involved with drifting, too bad those are not real race cars". No amount of arguing could convince him that a typical pro drift car is a sophisticated machine, one several times more massaged and engineered than his own race car.  So lets take a look inside Dai Yoshihara'sLexus IS350 that he drives for Team Falken and Discount Tire on the Formula D Circuit

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Girl Gone Green: Verena Mei’s Time Attack Nissan 350Z

MotoIQ Staff Report

Photos by  David J. Dowling

A little understood fact about prepping a turbo car for reliable track use is that extreme cooling is needed and the off the shelf performance radiators and oil coolers on the market are not enough to keep a turbo engine cool under actual track conditions. The VQ35DE engine is kept cool by a custom Ron Davis C&R core dual pass radiator with swirl tank and large 13 row Setrab oil cooler.

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Inside the 800-hp X-Games Fiestas - Update 1

By Dave Coleman

An American rallycross is an autocross in the dirt. A European rallycross is an explosion of rally bundled up and barely confined within the grounds of a racetrack. Roughly speaking, take every european rally car that has ever been banned for being too fast, turn up the boost, and then run 6 of them, wheel-to-wheel, in a sprint race that alternates between pavement and dirt. When a team of Swedish rallycross fiestas crossed the pond to run Pikes Peak and the X-Games I wanted to know more. How exactly do they get these Miata engines (the Ford Duratec is also known as a Mazda MZR) to 800-hp, and how do they harness that power and make it usable? This story is everything I know, updated frequently as I learn more...

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In the Beginning...  By Jeff Naeyaert

With a rear wheel drive, dual pivot front independent suspension system, multi-link rear suspension, limited slip differential, Brembo brakes and best of all a version of Mitsubishi's powerful 4B11 2 liter turbo motor or a 306 hp V6, the Genesis has all the makings of a serious performance coupe.  We at MotoIQ are excited to bring you one of the first purposely modified Hyundais that we know of in existence. 

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